On the heels of an accurate Super Bowl prediction, I’m in the mood to discuss another prediction that any astrologer can conduct with a high degree of confidence: El Niño. More than two years ago I noted in my Galactic Times e-mail newsletters (they’re free and available through my website – visit the about information for the link) that 2010 would be an El Niño year. How?

Back in 1947 a researcher for RCA, John Nelson, camped out atop a Manhattan skyscraper working to correlate short wave radio propogation disturbances with planetary relationships with the Sun from the heliocentric (Sun-centered) point of view. Nelson discovered that any planet making direct alignment (by an angle of 0 90 180 and 270) to the perihelion or node of any other planet increases the potential for solar volatility. Most notable in the revelation: volatility ran highest commonly when planets made aspects to the perihelion of Mars.

It’s easy to understand how Nelson became a patron saint for astrologers familiar with his work.

When the perihelion of Mars is impacted by a planet, the likelihood of solar activity increases. Solar eruptions shower the Earth with supercharged blasts of energy, affecting the atmosphere and assuming influence over prevailing weather patterns (not to mention making most humans more than a bit out of sorts during these blasts). During the third week of January, Jupiter – noted for his amplification of everything he touches – aligned with the perihelion of Mars (6 Pisces 14). If you ask anyone in the southwestern United States if the winter weather has been above average, when they take a moment digging out from under the mud, they’ll confirm a positive response to your question. These storms then marched across the central plains and dropped heavy snowfalls on the eastern seaboard of the United States.

This is a global pattern. Back in January online news wires carried amazing photographs of an unusually snowbound Europe and cold in Bangladesh. As well, a strong cyclone hit French Polynesia.

The return of sunspots perfectly and predictably aligns with this cycle. The last time Jupiter crossed the perihelion of Mars, we endured anomalistic weather on earth… as we did when Uranus, earlier in Pisces aligned with this point. Anytime Mars makes contact to his perihelion/aphelion axis, a short burst of intensified weather appears across the planet. Looking ahead to the short term, as March draws to a close, Mars crosses his aphelion, making an opposition to the perihelion. It would be reasonable to anticipate stronger than normal storms, riding the larger El Niño pattern at that time and probable anywhere on the planet.

A key point in presenting this information is to offset some of the building solar cycle hysteria already mounting on the Internet. Jupiter to the perihelion of Mars, naturally and organically, would be expected to heat up the solar cycle despite the recent, nearly anomalistic solar sunspot low era. Many have contended the peak of the next solar cycle due in 2011 will run late. Given that since these cycles have been observed the period consistently runs 11.08 years, there is no reason to expect that this time it will be twelve years… although that would make the peak of the next cycle coincident with the Mayan Calendar debacle. (The solar cycles operate on the 11.08 year short count and a 178.55 year longer count)

However, that is not at all likely. The long-standing cycles of the Sun likely will not yield to the persuasive fear-based wave riding that calendric cycle. It is true that the 2000 solar maximum contained a double peak. It is true that at that time scientists predicted a very strong 2011 maximum. But hysterical sorts latched onto the lingering solar maximum of 2000 and began auguring all sorts of mayhem for this next cycle, and insisted that it will run a year late, just to bolster silly End of the World (EOTW) agendas.

It is true that astronauts in space need to be very concerned about the solar outbursts. It is true that communication satellites might go on the fritz. It is true portions of the power grid could take a hit. Those who depend upon texting and satellite dependant Internet that supports social networking might think it’s the end of their social world, but the Sun, supported by the patterns of the planets is doing his cyclical thing.

Certainly I’ll write more about these patterns as the next Solar Max maximizes. If you want to be up to date on the latest solar blasts check out www.spaceweather.com. If you want to know more about other heliocentric astrological patterns and other groovy astrological stuff most astrologers won’t consider, subscribe to my e-zine the Galactic Times at www.philipsedgwick.com.

Meanwhile, El Niño is part of a predicable pattern. So are sunspots, Solar Maximum and the freak out silliness cycle of people, who have not performed celestial due diligence.

I am reminded of a staggering first line in a great novel. This line is so great it overshadows, “Call me Ishmael” and “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

Consider the digestible nugget written into the first sentence of The Path of Minor Planets by Andrew Sean Greer:

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Why don't astrologers actively embrace the new planets, dwarf though they may be, Eris, Sedna, Haumea and Makemake? Why did it take astrologers three decades to wrap around the potency of the Galactic Center in horoscopic judgments. How is it astrologers consistently invoke the same arguments used by skeptics against astrology (Sedna is too small and too far away)? How do we know these new small influences have any impact anyway. Too many questions? The answers appear in the blog.